[Headaches with focal neurological deficits and lymphocytic pleocytosis. An underdiagnosed entity?].

BACKGROUND

Since Bartlesson first described the pseudomigraine syndrome, few cases have been published on the now so-called headache with transit neurologic deficits and lymphocytic pleocytosis in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

METHODS

We describe the case of a twenty-year-old girl who had three attacks of hemicranial headache, numbness, language disorders and lymphocytic pleocytosis in CSF without symptoms between the attacks in a period of three weeks. The neuroradiological test results were normal, bacteriologic tests were negative and other etiologies of lymphocytic meningitis were discarded. The diagnostic of headache with neurological deficits and lymphocytic pleocytosis or pseudomigraine was reached by a method of exclusion.

CONCLUSIONS

Pseudomigraine, with established criteria, is not a well-known disorder. We must consider it as a possibility in the case of young patients with the above-mentioned symptoms because it has a benign and self-limited course.